European Beach Handball Tour 2018 reaches home stretch

The European Beach Handball Tour 2018 (ebt) reaches its final stages, with five more tournaments being played in Spain, Hungary, Portugal and Serbia this weekend.

This is the third to last weekend of the ebt, with four more tournaments scheduled for next weekend and the final two events being held from 10 to 12 August.

The action has already commenced in Spain at the Suances Cup ’18 edition, at the IX. Salgo Cup in Hungary and at the Taça Regional do Porto 2018 in Hungary where teams have been taking the sand since Thursday.

Starting this Friday is the Spanish Arena 1000 event in Valencia; on Saturday (28 July) the Serbian city of Kostolac also hosts a beach handball tournament.

Men’s and women’s rankings

With 50 out of 68 tournaments confirmed by the European Handball Federation, the final ranking of this season’s ebt is shaping up.

The men’s ranking is dominated by Spanish and Portuguese teams. Palletways Verallia Azuqueca enjoy the top spot with 1,908 points from five tournaments they played at.

GRD LEÇA - apostaganha.com from Portugal are second with 1,739 points, ahead of BM Playa Algeciras from Spain with 1,732 points. Portuguese sides V. Gaw (1,724) and Escola de Formação de Espinho - Os Tigres (1,707) are fourth and fifth, DIASA CBMP Ciudad de Málaga from Spain are sixth (1,597) - that turns Detono Zagreb (1,551) on seventh position into the first team neither stemming from Spain nor Portugal.

Nation-wise there is much more variety in the women’s ranking with LadyBugs from Hungary in first position (1,563), BM Playa Algeciras from Spain in second (1,35) and BHT GRU JUKO Piotrków Trybunalski from Poland (1,522) in third ahead of teams from Croatia and Germany.